At the occasion of the 5th
World Water Forum (WWF) in Istanbul, March 2009, the “Water and Disaster” Action Plan, report of the
High-Level Expert Panel on Water and Disaster/UNSGAB (HLEP), was launched by H.E. Dr. Han Seung-soo, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea. At the same time, a workshop
by the International Flood Initiative was organized in the WWF5 to catalyze global agenda toward Integrated
Flood Management. The IFI partners also highlighted their commitment to two specific items (No.2 and 30) in
the “Water and Disaster” Action Plan. This special event is organized by the International Flood Initiative
(IFI) to follow-up the recommendation and to start implementation of actions recommended in the “Water and
Disaster” Action Plan.

2. Organizers

The main
convener of the event is the International Flood Initiative (IFI) consisting of representatives of UNESCO, WMO,
UNU, UN/ISDR, and the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) as the IFI Secretariat.
IFI is a framework for promoting collaboration on flood risk reduction based on the Hyogo Framework for Action
and serves as a thematic group of the ISDR system. In order to organize the event, IFI as the main convener
received great support from the Japan Water Forum, the Korea Water Forum, and a few other members and
organizations related to the High-level Expert Panel on Water and Dissater/UNSGAB.